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Retribution/Chaos Heretics/Strategy
Chaos Heretics are the Chaos starting unit, and are not quite a backbone so much as the lovely steroid of the Chaos Space Marine armada. If you keep them as melee units they will be able to suppress close targets with the Doom Blast ability, while squads granted grenade Launchers will gain the Barrage ability and also become a respectable ranged unit with AoE damage. In addition, the ability to effectively use their worship to the chaos gods easily makes the difference between a 'decent' and 'good' Chaos Commander. 'Booty tactics' * Power in Numbers: Booty works best if you have just two, more than that will be detracting from your budget for more killy Chaos Marines and Daemons while only one will struggle to support your entire army. One can worship while the other charges/shoots in a group, or you can have your heretics supporting their masters in two locations at once. * Worshippers: Use the effects of their worship to support their stronger and more resilient superiors. They are not especially effective combatants in of themselves, but will make the Chaos Marines and Daemons alongside them all the more powerful. * Limited Use: When the enemy hits Tier 2 they will immediately gain access to a plethora of new toys and boys that will annihilate the heretics even faster than before. At this point they should no longer be used as anything more than utility units that provide worship and disruption (Doom Blast as melee, Barrage as ranged), maybe as meat shields in a pinch. 'Melee' * Anti-ranged: As most melee units they are made so that they can force ranged units into melee fights, also their Doom Blast ability can effectively suppress nearby infantry units for a short period of time this can help with escaping as suppressed units have both slower movement and rate of fire. They are additionally excellent for slowing units for kiting and forcing them to flee if support fire is added. They can also slow units to allow friendly units to finish them off. 'Upgrades' Aspring Champion A must have when the enemy hits Tier 2 if you aren't going to grab Grenade Launchers. Not for better killing power, but for their survival. If you are running to any sizable amount of ranged units your precious heretics can melt before they reach them and you may lose your heretics even while retreating thanks to their pitiful defense. The champion, however, has over three times the HP of the heretics and more effective damage mitigation, allowing him to more easily retreat and gather more followers even after his previous ones have already been cut down. The ability to detect infiltrated units also adds more utility to the squad, but this is more of a bonus than your sole reason to buy the upgrade. 'Grenade Launchers' * Anti-suppression/anti-ranged: Use the barrage ability to knock back strong ranged units and then send in some melee units to attack them before they get the chance to counter. This is a good tactic if your opponent chooses to purchase a Heavy Weapon squad. * Anti-garrison: The grenade Launchers are very effective if your opponent chooses to take advantage of buildings. One is enough as a deterrent if this is the reason you are buying them, but two can be used if you really want to blow up those cowardly fools. * Ranged: This upgrade will (understandably) turn the heretic squad into a ranged unit, with four of the cultists being given grenade launchers and the other four being given autoguns. If you are planning on having most of your forces ranged this will let the cultists hang back alongside them rather than charge the enemy all by their lonesome, indirectly increasing their survivability. It should be noted that the Aspiring Champion will keep his Bolt Pistol and Chainsword if you purchase this upgrade though, so unless you are not at all short on cash you should consider sticking to getting one upgrade or the other. 'Worships' Chaos Lord Gives you a speed bonus around the worship. A good ability for a full-melee charge, or even simply getting to the fight faster. Unless they have suppression they won't be able to cut you down before you reach them, and even that can be disregarded when you build your first vehicle. Nothing is scarier than a Bloodcrusher or Khornate Dreadnought hurtling towards you at blinding speed. Plague Champion Gives you a health regeneration bonus, which works well with a mass of ranged units. The heretics can be placed close to the front to goad the enemy to shoot at them rather than the rest of your forces, but be careful not to lose them by accident. If your squads have lost a lot of health, but haven't lost models, you can worship while at base to regenerate even faster. Sorcerer Gives you an infiltration around the worship, but does not infiltrate the cultist squad themselves. While it does not provide any direct stat bonuses this can be effective as a means of preventing the enemy from knowing just how many units are waiting for them when they come closer or where those units might even be, and if you can place them far back enough you can use the wide range of the worship to catch people completely off guard in a surprise ambush. Or you can simply worship with no one around after doing a few ambushes to psyche out your foe, pleasing Tzeentch in the process! Shrines NOTE: Worshipping a shrine is different from the worship ability. Rather than simply getting close and activating worship you need to right-click the shrine while the heretics are selected. Chaos Lord Summons singular Bloodletters around the tower, each with a limited lifespan. A deceptively defensive tower, worship will cause the Bloodletters to spawn even faster. Put one of them close to a victory point and it can easily protect it from any lone unit that tries to take it, though if a more sizable offensive is used it may be more useful to either worship normally to counter-charge or simply retreat with the heretics rather than try to get more bloodletters onto the battlefield by worshipping the shrine if they are by themselves. Plague Champion Unlike Plague Champion worship this will periodically give a burst of health to surrounding units rather than a constant boost, with worship around it making the health burst activate twice as often and enable reinforcing close to the shrine. Effective if you are planning to dig in. Sorcerer Throws Doombolts periodically, with worship making the bolts fire faster. For guarding some points it can be useful, but it should otherwise be ignored.